The Birth Of The GLFEA
The origins of the Great Lakes Fabricators & Erectors Association can be directly traced to April 7, 1938. That's when a group calling itself the Sheet & Metal Erectors Association was incorporated. Before then, however, there was an indirect ancestor operating in Detroit. Commonly known as "the Steel Club," it was broken up in the aftermath of a successful federal prosecution on the charge of price fixing.
While judged illegal, it's not clear if what the Steel Club was doing was immoral. Its members were trying to at least inhibit the use of fabricated steel on Detroit projects brought in from out-of-state suppliers, in an attempt to steer more work to local firms. As the historical record proves, they weren't strong enough to keep the door closed. During the first three decades of the 20th century the Motor City saw explosive growth and a number of steel erection giants, such as American Bridge Co., owned by U.S. Steel, and McClintic-Marshall Construction Co. of New York, N.Y., which was bought out by Bethlehem Steel, reaped considerable profit from it.
Some historians attribute Detroit's rise solely to the automotive industry but even before such pioneers as Ford, Olds, the Dodge Brothers, and Durant began production the city was a manufacturing powerhouse. Its major industries included railroad cars and rails, steel, stoves, and ships of up to 10,000 tons that traversed the Great Lakes.
Noted Jeremiah Dwyer, president of Garland Stoves & Ranges, in a letter he placed in the city of Detroit's time capsule in 1900:
As Dwyer noted, the city had grown in population from the 1,442 recorded in the 1810 census. When the 1930s began, its citizens numbered over 1.5 million. From 1900 the area it encompassed grew from 23 square miles to 139 square miles in 1927, essentially reaching the boundaries maintained today.
Structural steel played a prominent role in all this growth, starting with the erection of the 11 story Hammond Building in 1889. The building was demolished to make room for the structure that houses Bank One today. When it was new, people used to come to ride the Hammond Building's elevators to the top floor to peer out over a growing downtown area. Erection of its steel frame - and that of the nearby, 14 story Majestic Building, which opened just a few years later - was probably made easier through the use of the then cutting edge technology of steam powered hoisting engines.
The technology was developed in Chicago, Ill., in 1875. One prominent Detroit based steel erector who was an early expert in it was William Robert Kales, one of the founders of Whitehead & Kales, a major steel fabrication and erection firm during the first seven decades of the 20th century.
The son of an attorney, Kales graduated with a bachelor of mechanical engineering degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1892. For the next three years he was engaged in steam engine construction in Worcester, Mass.; Chicago, Ill.; and Milwaukee, Wis. From 1895-99 he was with Brown Hoisting Machinery Co. of Cleveland, Ohio, coming to Detroit later in 1899 to help organize Whitehead & Kales. In 1905 it was incorporated as the Whitehead & Kales Iron Works.
Another early Detroit based steel fabricator and erector was the Russel Wheel & Foundry Co., which originally was devoted to the manufacture of railroad cars and wheels. While records on who supplied structural steel for the frames of prominent Detroit landmarks are scanty, it's known that Russel provided it for the downtown J.L. Hudson's Department store as well as for Detroit factories manufacturing Cadillac and Packard automobiles.
The Packard Motor Co. facilities, located on East Grand Boulevard, were designed by Albert Kahn of Albert Kahn Associates, with the first building rising in 1903. It was noted for its 32 ft. by 50 ft. structural bays which were considered enormous in their day. The plant also pioneered several other innovations that Kahn would later use in designing plants for Ford Motor Co.
One was the development of the reinforced concrete floor, used in Packard Building No., 10, constructed in 1905. The reinforcing system was developed by Albert's younger brother, Julius Kahn, a civil engineer educated at the University of Michigan, who was an associate member of Albert Kahn Associates for several years before becoming president of the Trussed Concrete Steel Co.
A number of interesting buildings that define today's Detroit were erected prior to 1930. Consider the construction achievements of Henry Ford, for one.
In January 1910 Ford started producing cars at his Highland Park plant, another Albert Kahn design. The main building was four stories tall, 865 ft. long, and 75 ft. wide. Soon after his Highland Park facility opened, Ford decided that automotive production could be made more efficient if the assembly lines were placed within single storied buildings. He soon purchased a 2,000 acre tract in Dearborn and, working with Albert Kahn, between 1917 and 1938 erected much of his Rouge River complex. Between 1917-26 alone, some two dozen major structures were erected, including:
Formed in 1924. Barton Malow Co., now based in Southfield, also played a crucial role in building foundation systems at Ford's River Rouge complex during the 1920s and 1930s. During that period the company was chosen as the prime contractor for the Great Lakes Steel Corp., which built a steel production plant on a swamp in Ecorse adjacent to the Rouge River. Ben Maibach Sr. , who'd joined the company in 1925 as a carpenter, served as Barton-Malow's project administrator.
"This site included open hearth and blast furnaces and rolling mills to be able to produce high quality automotive steel from ore," remembered his son, Ben Maibach Jr., in a history he prepared on Barton-Malow. "Approximately 2,000 people were employed on the construction site. The project was successfully completed which led to future work at the steel company and helped reinforce my father's positive relationship with Carl Barton and Arnold Malow, (the firm's principals.)"
In 1917 Detroit architect Louis Kamper unveiled his vision for the development of Washington Boulevard in downtown Detroit, with his first project being the construction of the Book Building, built by Walbridge Aldinger. The 36 story Book Building Tower was added in 1926. Other Kemper designs built on that thoroughfare were Book-Cadillac Hotel, erected in 1924 on the site of the former Hotel Cadillac; the Washington Boulevard Building, in 1927; and the Eaton Tower, in 1928. The onset of the Great Depression cancelled plans for a second Book Tower in 1930. That structure, notes historian David Lee Poremba, was to have been 70 stories tall.
As you've gathered, the "Roaring 20s" in Detroit was celebrated by a huge building boom. In 1929 the city ranked third in the nation - behind New York, N.Y., and Chicago, Ill. - in new construction.
Some of the decade's noteworthy projects included:
In 1937, for example, Chrysler built its half-ton truck plant at Mound and 8 Mile roads. Designed by Albert Kahn, it consisted of an Assembly Building measuring 402 ft. by 2,262 ft., and an Export Building measuring 122 ft. by 242 ft. Bent trusses were used in its roof design to enable the monitors to extend below roof level.
Another major Detroit project of the 1930s were the extensive changes made to Tiger Stadium.
Originally named Bennett Park, it was renamed Navin Field on April 20, 1912, after it had been modernized into a steel and concrete stadium seating 23,000. The original general contractor was Hawkins & Conkey, Cleveland, Ohio, with Detroit Iron Works fabricating and erecting the structural steel. Osborn Engineering Co., Cleveland, was the project's designer. In 1936, however, the stadium's pavilion and bleachers were double-decked, to increase seating capacity to 36,000. Two years later more seats were added to raise the seating capacity to 53,000. And that's when the stadium was renamed again after owner Walter O. Briggs. In 1948 overhead lights were added and the stadium was finally christened Tiger Stadium in 1961.
Construction on the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron began in 1937. It was designed by Modieski & Masters and built by American Bridge Co. Its main span is 1,376 ft. of which 871 ft. are above water. The Canadian approaches measure 2,657 ft. and the American approaches are 2,301 ft.
These and a number of smaller projects kept the structural steel fabrication and erection industry alive in Detroit. Undoubtedly the founders of the Sheet & Metal Erectors Association were seeing the approach of another World War in Europe when they filed the group's incorporation papers. One can only speculate if they could also see the massive amounts of construction America's entry into that war would generate. Still, they did take this major step to prepare for it.
©2006 Great Lakes Fabricators & Erectors Association. All Rights Reserved.
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